Preservation Brief 15: Preservation of Historic Concrete
Gaudette P and Slaton D. 2007. Preservation Brief 15: Preservation of Historic Concrete. Cultural Landscape Guidance Documents. ISBN: 978-0-16-078946-5. NPS Technical Preservation Services. Washingon, D.C.
Concrete is an extraordinarily versatile building material that has been used for utilitarian, ornamental, and monumental structures since ancient times. Composed of a mixture of sand, gravel, crushed stone, or other coarse material bound together with lime or cement, concrete undergoes a chemical reaction and hardens when water is added. Inserting reinforcement to structural concrete elements contributes to the range and size of building types that can be constructed of concrete. Like all materials, concrete is subject to deterioration. This Brief provides an overview of the history of concrete and its popularization in the United States, surveys the principle causes and modes of deterioration, and outlines approaches to repair and protection that are appropriate to historic concrete. In the context of this document, historic concrete is considered to be concrete used in the construction of structures of historical, architectural, or engineering interest, whether those structures are older or relatively new.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Gaudette, Paul; Slaton, Deborah
- Date of Issue
- 2007
- Publisher
- NPS Technical Preservation Services
- Units
- CRPS
- Keywords
- Architecture, Building material, concrete, Construction, CRSS, deterioration, Engineering, Fortification, historic repair, Road Construction